CMT Blog: Julio Iglesias Jr.

Heard an interesting experiment on local radio this morning. Gerry House, the morning man at WSIX-Nashville, played some Spanish language country songs and announced that station management had decided to broaden their listener base by embracing all elements of the local community. And Nashville does have a sizable and growing Mexican and Latino populace. Then - oh boy, then House opened his phone lines and listeners started calling in. Did they ever. And most of them were angry. Angry that another culture was being “forced” on them. Vowed to leave the station and never return. Forget the fact that Spanish-language singers and writers are a big part of country music history. I guess House waited too long to remind his listeners that it was April Fool’s Day. Oh - and then he played the new single by Gone Country winner Julio Iglesias Jr. and invited listeners to vote on that song. It’s a good thing he wasn’t playing any Dixie Chicks music. God knows what would have happened.

Love can build a bridge, and so can Julio Iglesias Jr. — if he gets a shot at country music success.

Julio’s fellow Gone Country contestant, Carnie Wilson, says she’s determined to lose 40-50 pounds and get pregnant again.

I wonder why Kellie Pickler chose a conservative red dress for American Idol. Didn’t stop Ryan Seacrest from cracking jokes, though.

Lisa Marie Presley is craving fruit during her pregnancy. By the way, we’ve heard that peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches are delicious when they’re fried.

The show is sold out, but you can still win seats on the Red Carpet for the 2008 CMT Music Awards.

What an incredible predicament I found myself in on the finale of Gone Country. I gotta tell you, I was actually secretly hoping that the episode where I heard the original songs for the first time that I would be able to start crossing people off the list. I liked everybody’s personality and everybody was bringing something great to the table, but I was hoping that a few of them would write songs that weren’t very good, and I could just cross them off the list based on the lack of greatness of the song. But then everybody wrote a viable song, in my opinion. Literally everybody. And if you know me, you know I’m a real hardcore guy when it comes to integrity of songwriting. I mean, I’ve made my career on songwriting, but I wasn’t able to cross anybody off the list at that point, which was a little concerning to me because then I knew it was all going to boil down to the performances.

So on the finale, as I’m watching everybody perform, once again it was not extremely clear who was in the lead up until I saw Julio [Iglesias Jr.] perform. You can actually see my reaction on TV where my eyes kinda got wide and I went, “Wow.” There was a palpable magnetism between Julio and that audience, and not just the women — men and women. The whole entire place moved about three feet closer to the stage when he hit that chorus. It was the X-factor that I talked about in the final episode. I kinda laid out the criteria of what it was going to take for somebody to get that final little edge and the final little edge to me was the X-factor — the X-factor being that thing that you can’t put your finger on, but you witnessed it, you felt it, and it was real. And gotta tell you, Julio had that.

Diana DeGarmo’s vocals were so incredible. Had it just been based on vocal performance, Diana would have won it hands down. She had a strong response from the audience, but it was not, in my opinion, as strong as the one Julio had. So that was one real major factor in me picking Julio. And, to be quite honest with you, the other real major factor was, I think, that Julio Iglesias Jr. brings an element to country music that does not exist — and that being the Spanish-English element. I remember growing up in Texas and hearing Johnny Rodriguez on my radio station, and about half my friends were Spanish kids — Mexican kids — and their first language was Spanish. They were all my buddies. I remember Johnny Rodriguez turning them on to country music. They liked it, but it wasn’t something they completely related to until they saw Johnny Rodriguez.

Well, I think, it’s been 30 years since that, and I think it’s time we pay attention to that audience again. I see Spanish-speaking people coming to Big & Rich shows by the hundreds and thousands, depending on the part of the country that we’re in, and right now, there’s nobody in our format speaking to that audience. So that was another major factor for me that I didn’t think anybody else on the cast brought to the table, obviously. He is a true international artist. Anybody that knows me knows I love country music so much, I want to see it become the most popular format of music in the world. I want it to be the biggest thing in the world, and one thing we have to do to do that is to embrace artists that can help us take it around the world and that can educate the world about how great our music is. Julio is such a class act and always carries himself with integrity. Those are the factors that weighed in to me to pick him as the winner of Gone Country.

I was not greatly surprised that Julio Iglesias Jr. won the CMT Gone Country competition. As John Rich posts in his CMT shows blog, Iglesias’ Hispanic heritage was a factor in Iglesias’ appeal and in Rich’s decision-making process. People in the country music industry have been saying for years that they wish they could find the “next Johnny Rodriguez.” He was a dynamic, handsome Mexican-America singer with a great voice and a real ear for country and he attracted multi-racial audiences across the board. As has Rick Trevino, who has had many country hits. And Freddy Fender, the late singer who had several No. 1 country hits. Julio Jr.’s father, of course, had two Top 10 country duets with Willie Nelson, including his No. 1, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” So, Julio Jr.’s career will be watched closely.
 

Curiosity got the best of me last night, so I dropped into the Wildhorse Saloon for a taping of Gone Country, a new series coming to CMT in early 2008. John Rich is the host, and besides talking a whole lot, he ends up choosing one of seven singing celebrities to introduce to country radio. At this taping, the cast members sang for a country audience for the first time, trying out something co-written with some of the city’s finest writers.

Personally, my favorite song of the night was the first one – “Smile That Smile,” about the moment when your resistance falls away. Carnie Wilson of Wilson Phillips sang it with her co-writers, Marv Green and Leslie Satcher. (I guess Wendy and Chynna couldn’t make it.) She sparkled in a beautiful white rhinestone jacket, clearly loving her moment in the spotlight again. Julio Iglesias Jr. has … well… he has a great smile. Sisqo earned the most applause of the night, and his original song was a standout too. Am I the only one who never heard “The Thong Song”? Must be. So I had nothing to judge him against. If you like Martina McBride, you’d like Diana DeGarmo, a strong singer and American Idol runner-up. For a quieter performance, give a shot to Maureen McCormick (Marsha Brady on The Brady Bunch), who is taking another stab at a music career and did herself proud.

Bobby Brown – of New Edition and The National Enquirer — offered a song about changing his ways. He told the audience he just got out of a long marriage, even though he wishes it wasn’t over. What would Whitney Houston say to that? Bobby was quick to add that he’s got a new woman and says he’ll be on his best behavior from now on. Considering the rumors about his behavior in the Nashville house where he and the castmates lived for two weeks, I seriously doubt that. Meanwhile, the original song by Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider was more rock than country, but what isn’t these days? Although I’m partial to country music, at the end of the night, I couldn’t resist singing along to “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Of course, in the long run, we are gonna take it, because one of these artists is going to have a shot at country stardom, but we’ll have to wait until early next year to find out which one.